In this day and age many a reporter or editor has taken the liberty to change or leave out a word or two here and there to make a story better. I am not suggesting that this is the case in this situation, but a little bit of editing (which needed to occur because I had gone over the word count) to my 2012 Footy Almanac Bio has me suggesting or saying two things that are definitely incorrect. But I’ll get to that in a minute.
This being my first year contributing to the Almanac website and also the Footy Almanac book you can imagine that I was a bit excited when I collected my two copies on Monday afternoon. It was a wonderful coincidence that I was down shopping for a Christmas present or two in Adelaide when the books arrived so that I could collect them before heading back to the hills to have a look at my first bit of published sports writing.
When I get home I go straight to Rd 10 and to my report on the Brisbane vs West Coast game. Through wonderful editing it read really well. In fact the editing had made the report I had given look ten times better. It was as if a piece of coal had been turned into a sparkling diamond. Well done boys!!
Okay, now to go to the back of the book to check out the bio. Picture looks good of my two sons and me at the footy. Read the first line of the bio –Andrew Weiss is a Brisbane Lions supporter who lives in the Adelaide Hills. Excellent, all correct. Then I read the second line and I just about faint – He barracks for Port (SANFL) and Adelaide (AFL) respectively and his wife has no interest in football. Now the second part of the sentence is absolutely correct. My wife does has no interest in footy and cringes come the start of February until the start of October knowing most weekends will be consumed by the football. However the first part is totally incorrect – I do not barrack for Port or the Crows, in fact it is my sons William and Henry who do (what I wrote for my bio was ‘His sons William and Henry barrack for Port and the Crows’).
As I take a few breaths a smile breaks across my face as I see the funny side to what has been put in the Almanac. What has been written is the complete opposite to who I actually do follow. As opposite as saying the average temperature in Antarctica during the winter months is close to 50oC. In the SANFL I am devoted Norwood supporter and Port is the arch enemy, the team that Norwood supporters love to beat no matter whether it is a grand final or a trial game. My favourite games have been those like the 1997 Grand Final when Norwood thrashed Port and the 1984 Grand Final when Norwood came from fifth to beat Port (that year Craig Balme the full back for Norwood started fighting Tim Evans the full forward for Port during the national anthem – oh the memories).
As for the Crows, well even though I was born in SA and have lived in SA all my life I have had no affiliation with them since I went to a Brisbane vs Crows match in the mid-nineties and got told off by a lady in the crowd because I was making her son cry. The reason he was crying was that I was barracking too loud for Brisbane. Apparently her son (who I think was about 11 years old) could not believe that someone could even consider barracking for some other team other than the Crows. Since then I have had nothing but pure joy walking into my workplace the weekend after the Lions have won and the Crows have loss. I am constantly reminding my friends who support the Crows that their back to back premierships in ’97 & ’98 are insignificant compare to the Lions going back to back to back in 2001 to 2003.
So as you can see a couple of missed words in my 2012 Footy Almanac Bio have turned my footy life upside down for the next couple of weeks as I try to convince everyone that I haven’t converted to the dark side.
My name is Andrew Weiss
I support the Brisbane Lions. I do not support Port or the Crows.
Ah, that’s better.
Time to start working on my 2013 Bio.
Merry Christmas Almanackers
About Andrew Weiss
Andrew is one of the few Brisbane Lions supporters that lives in the Adelaide Hills. He still has bragging rights over any Crows or Port supporter by mentioning the back to back to back premierships the Lions achieved in 2001-2003. After playing for over a decade for the mighty Adelaide Lutheran Football Club better known as 'The Doggies' he now spends his Saturdays running around footy ovals as an umpire, getting abuse no matter what decision is made. Coaching is probably next on the agenda as his two sons have started to play the great game of AFL. Andrew is a sports fanatic who when not watching or reading about sport is teaching secondary students about Biology, Nutrition and Psychology.
Hi Andrew, it could have been much worse. Imagine if the book had said you barrack for Port Adelaide (AFL). Much worse.
Be interesting to see how many almanackers are Port supporters…surely not.
You are lucky that you do not barrack for one of the garbage Melbourne clubs such as the Western Bulldogs – two grand finals and one premiership in 85 years; or St. Kilda – 7 grand finals for one premiership in 115 years; or other garbage clubs who have failed misarably since the AFL started some 30 odd years ago – these clubs include Melbourne and Richmond. The Brisbane teams of 2001 – 2003 were sensational and played some great footy which was as good as what my favourite club Geelong played during the years 2007 – 2011.
Whoa! Enough of the ‘garbage’ clubs description! I’d even accept ‘tragic’ from Jack Elliot before ‘garbage’. True to form when Jack had a go at the ‘under-resourced’ Bulldogs, they came out the next week and stuck it up the blue-baggers. Jack of course hated the idea of evening up the competition in a financial sense and would have really hated the prospect of salary caps when it is was so easy to go out and buy your way to a premiership. It sounds like you and Jack would like a cosy competition comprising of teams who have won a block of premierships in recent years and forget the rest. In Jack’s case of course, it was more of a ‘born to rule’ mentality.
There is a lot more to the AFL competition than the stats you rattled off regarding numbers of years in the competition up against the lack of premierships etc. You only have to read articles and comments on this very website from fans of ‘garbage’ clubs to realize that.
Just imagine if you had your competition comprising of just the recently successfull clubs. There would be no Footy Almanac with all the passion, angst and heartache that comes with it. Now that would be tragic.
I don’t think Mother Teresa ever won a flag either.
Shit, I drew Mark Doyle in the almanac Kris Kringle.
Any gift ideas for him, dear ‘knackers?
Coal
Coal does rank low for both “secular materialism” and emotional intelligence.
Good start
Forget the secular materialism and what not, you’re giving Cookie too much credit.
Coal in the Christmas stocking is a tradtional ‘gift’. Here’s some at Kris Kringle prices. http://www.kitchendance.com/luofcoforsoc.html
Thanks for your contribution Andrew Weiss. And welcome. I have always thought the Almanac need more Andrews.
In answer to your question D Downer, I suggest those little lace mat thingies that you see on bedside tables. Now what are they called again?
AF
Happy Christmas, Andrew. Could’ve been worse, they could’ve said you were a Carlton fan.
Oops – ed. Apologies. Hopefully we’ll need a re-print in which case all errors will be righted. or at least some of them. JTH
Hi Andrew,
It was my fault. Ten push-ups for me.
And then ten 400s when everyone else has finished training.
I’m sorry it took the edge off your excitement. Just blame the Victorian editors!